One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Mar 2005 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About this ebook

For the centenary of the Russian Revolution, a new edition of the Russian Nobel Prize-winning author's most accessible novel

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is an undisputed classic of contemporary literature. First published (in censored form) in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, it is the story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov as he struggles to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. On every page of this graphic depiction of Ivan Denisovich's struggles, the pain of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's own decade-long experience in the gulag is apparent—which makes its ultimate tribute to one man's will to triumph over relentless dehumanization all the more moving.

An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced-work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary works to have emerged from the Soviet Union. The first of Solzhenitsyn's novels to be published, it forced both the Soviet Union and the West to confront the Soviet's human rights record, and the novel was specifically mentioned in the presentation speech when Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. Above all, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich establishes Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy" (Harrison Salisbury, The New York Times).

This unexpurgated, widely acclaimed translation by H. T. Willetts is the only translation authorized by Solzhenitsyn himself.

Ratings and reviews

Not a big fan of the "classics" [boring] but this book gets a re-read every now and then. It is easier to comprehend this is a "day" of activity more so than Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series; although I like those books too. An easy book to read; doesn't require a lot of time and effort to enjoy.

This is such a well-thought out, well-written work. I can feel the bitter cold, the hunger and deprivation from my living room. Like all truly great works, this one feels true to life and gives me much to ponder long after I've put the book down, tempting me to read it again. And again...

I was given this book initially by a English teacher in junior high. he was aware that I loved to read and I read everything I could get my hands on. I love the stark detail that the book is written in and it makes me feel like I am right there in the bitter cold along with the other prisoners starving and lonely. I have read everything that Mr. solzhenytsen has written since and I am a huge fan of all his books.

About the author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, was serving the Soviet Army in 1945 when he was arrested and sentenced to eight years in a labor camp, later cut short by Khrushchev's reforms. Although permitted to publish One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Writers' Union in 1969. The Western publication of his other novels, particularly The Gulag Archipelago, brought retaliation: in 1974, Solzhenitsyn was stripped of his citizenship and forcibly flown to Frankfurt. In 1991, the Soviet government dismissed treason charges against him, and Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia in 1994.